Innovation by SIT

In SIT, we say that the term NPD stands for New Promise Development, in addition to its more ordinary meaning New Product Development.

We explain that when our customers want us to innovate and bring them something new and exciting, this doesn’t necessarily have to be a product. It could be a new promise, new usages or new packaging for an existing product. A classic example comes from Orbit: Remember when chewing a gum was something you did just to freshen your breathe? Orbit reinvented the chewing gum category by promoting the anti decay benefit of its chewing gum.

We believe that developing new promises is always a great way to innovate, but in a time of recession we may need new promises even more.

Think about the way consumers’ behavior changes during a recession:
- We eat less outside, and we prefer to stay in
- If we do eat outside, we may order less than usual
- Because we don’t go out as much, we host more often
- We think twice before spending money and we look for a rationale for our purchases
- We may still buy presents for our kids, but fewer ones
- We tend to compare prices more than ever
- If we can, we put more money aside for a rainy day.

If I were a company in the food and beverages industry, I could launch an innovative product that is new to the market. This move could provide many advantages: demonstrating leadership during a downturn benefits the company’s reputation; the new product could help the company acquire new consumers looking for feel-good factor and excitement; it helps the company cheer up and motivate employees by conveying the message of good business.

Yet, I want to offer another option. Instead of focusing on new products, we may want to try focusing on new promises. Let me explain:
- If people eat out less – we can launch a new kit that “brings the restaurant to your home”. We could try bringing them the experience of eating out – inside.
- If people host more often, let’s help them be proud of themselves.
- We could launch new packaging that creates new “eating” experiences
- We could collaborate with other companies to create a complete meal pack.

We could probably think of many other ideas, but the principle is that we can really extract the best out of this time, not as a cliché but in reality.

One of SIT’s main principles says that constraints foster innovation. People usually agree with this principle but we have learnt from our experience, that when we have many constraints we don’t usually say something like: “Cool! We have lots of constraints, we can be really innovative! Let’s use them and make a difference!” Usually the opposite is true: we feel depressed, we feel anxious, we don’t like ambiguity and we don’t feel safe enough to innovate.

Maybe the development of new promises could open the new window that we are searching for: a way to bring more opportunities for growth without needing long development processes. We can achieve this growth by focusing our attention on innovating the way we “package” and “present” our existing products, in a way that transforms them into a new offer that brings real value, a new message and hope to the market.

If you have any examples for such products, I will be happy if you can share them with us.